


Three Dances (One Wedding)

by mrsfrisby



Series: Only Me Beside You [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dancing, F/F, F/M, Happily Ever After, Jedi Mind Tricks, Leia's lost so much, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Wedding, Yavin 4, after the whole war is over, coming home, reason to celebrate after loss, so. much. fluff.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 00:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6134959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsfrisby/pseuds/mrsfrisby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At Finn and Poe's wedding after the First Order has been defeated for good, three different couples take a spin around the dance floor, each wrapped in their own little worlds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jess and Rey

**Author's Note:**

> The music changes to a fast song, and Jess can tell that Rey’s already “persuading” the band to play something softer again. The music stops and then abruptly begins again with a slow song. The members of the band exchange puzzled looks, but just keep playing on.
> 
> “That’s really a terrible Jedi habit you’re picking up,” Jess tells her. 
> 
> Rey just shrugs and holds her closer. “But we get to keep dancing like this,” Rey says. “And I don’t want to let you go right now.”

Jess is grinning from ear to ear, and it’s not just because two of her best friends in the galaxy just tied the knot. It’s because she’s never seen Rey—channel-the-Force, slap-down-the-bad-guys, Jedi Rey—dance before. And, man, is she busting it up on the dance floor. For a while, she and Luke of all people were getting down together, but he went to talk with his old cronies and Rey moved on to try out some of her moves with a group of mechanics from the Resistance.

Jess grins even more when Rey literally jumps and bops her way across the room and pulls her physically out on the dance floor. 

“You can’t be my girlfriend and not dance,” Rey says breathlessly. “You just can’t. It’s an absolute requirement if this relationship is going to work.”

Jess takes Rey’s hand and twirls her before pulling her close again. “And you know that I strive to live up to your girlfriend expectations in every way,” she tells Rey. 

They laugh as they start to jump and bop together now. Jess normally wouldn’t be caught dead dancing in public, but she also has a hard time saying no to Rey—and not even because Rey does Jedi mind tricks on her (they only experiment with that in the privacy of their own bedroom, thank you very much). It’s just that Rey’s got this…exuberance. Even after nearly getting killed more than once during the war, Rey still hasn’t lost it. And when Jess is feeling her most discouraged—or her most guilty that so many others died and she didn’t—Rey’s complete embrace of the joys of life always rescue her. So, if Rey wants to dance, Jess will dance with her.

That’s not to say, however, that Jess isn’t grateful when the music changes and a slow song comes on. Or that she doesn’t suspect that Rey might have had a hand in it.

“Did you bribe the band to play this?” she asks Rey. “And by bribe, I mean, did you actually use the Force to get them to change their playlist?”

Rey just shrugs. “You look overheated,” she says nonchalantly. “And I didn’t make them play this song. I merely sent a mental suggestion that something slower might be acceptable to certain people on the dance floor.”

“You are totally an evil Jedi, “ Jess says under her breath, and Rey gives a breathy little laugh before pulling her even closer. 

“You love it,” Rey whispers in Jess’s ear, and who is Jess to disagree?

“I still can’t believe this is the first wedding you’ve ever been to,” she says.

Rey doesn’t respond, but Jess knows it's only because she doesn’t have to. Jess is well aware of what Rey's situation was on Jakku. And there’s been a war to fight after all. The one other wedding they were going to go to together never happened—Iolo and Karé were both shot out of the sky during the same battle, just days before they were going to get married.

Jess swallows down the pain and focuses on what’s in front of her. This wedding. The one that did happen.

Rey gets it. She gets how she’s feeling. “Being here is like finding something magical you didn’t know existed before,” Rey tells her. 

“Are you saying that Poe and Finnare magical?” Jess asks. Poe is talking with his dad’s next-door neighbor while Finn is dancing with Poe’s aunt. Every now and then their eyes meet, though, and the love Jess sees in them makes her chest ache. Okay, so sometimes it does seem like there’s something of magic between them.

“I mean all the whole wedding,” Rey says gently. “Poe and Finn, of course. But look around.”

So Jess does—she looks more closely around flat, green expanse that was Poe’s backyard growing up and that’s now covered in flowers and tiny white lights. BB-8 is running around excitedly, completely unable to stay in one place through sheer droid happiness. The Resistance pilots have all gathered in a tight knot and are toasting, over and over again, about Force knows what. A group of old-timers from the original Rebellion—Chewie, Admiral Ackbar, Nien, Luke, even C3PO and R2D2 among them—is gathered around one crowded table telling stories and sharing laughs. General Organa sits Poe’s father Kes at a quieter table, both of their faces aglow as they talk in lower tones to each other.

“You’re right,” Jess says. “It is like magic.” Jess’s face is glowing in its own way—flushed and happy and full of love for everyone around her.

Rey leans in to kiss Jess. “So is this,” she says.

The music changes to a fast song, and Jess can tell that Rey’s already “persuading” the band to play something softer again. The music stops and then abruptly begins again with a slow song. The members of the band exchange puzzled looks, but just keep playing on.

“That’s really a terrible Jedi habit you’re picking up,” Jess tells her. 

Rey just shrugs and holds her closer. “But we get to keep dancing like this,” Rey says. “And I don’t want to let you go right now.”

They sway to the music for a few moments without saying a word. Then Jess pulls away, just a little bit.

“I don’t want to let you go either right now,” she tells Rey. “Or ever, really.”

Rey runs her fingers through Jess’s hair and down her neck. “Neither do I,” she says. “I want to be with you forever.”

“Okay,” Jess says. “Well…I guess that’s settled.”

“What’s settled?”

“You just agreed,” Jess says. “You’re going to stay with me forever. You know what that means.”

Her hands have stopped their wandering and the two women are no longer moving on the dance floor. “Wait. Is it possible that you’re asking me to marry you?” Rey asks. 

“I am,” Jess says. “And I think you just said yes?” She takes both of Rey’s hands in hers. “At least I hope you just did.”

Rey smiles. “I don’t have a lot of firsthand experience with this kind of thing, but it seems like a pretty unconventional proposal to me.”

“Would you rather I set the scene as elaborately as Finn did for Poe?” Jess asks, starting to feel nervous that Rey hasn’t exactly answered yet.

“No,” Rey says. “I’ve never minded unconventional.”

“Okay, then…?”

Rey seems to realize, all of a sudden, what it is that Jess is waiting for. “Oh,” she says. “Oh, yes, of course! Of course I want to marry you, Jess.” She holds her closer and breathes into Jess’s ear. “When I said I didn’t want to let you go, I meant it.”

Jess lets out a relieved laugh and runs her fingers through Rey’s hair, let down to wave and curl as it sees fit for the occasion.

“It would probably be inappropriate to start making out in the middle of someone else’s wedding, right?” she asks.

“When has being inappropriate ever stopped you before?” Rey laughs.

Jess grins so widely it makes her mouth a little sore. But there are clearly many more fun ways to make each other's mouths sore—some of which are much more inappropriate in a public setting than others. She pulls in Rey for a kiss and they throw any and all sense of decorum firmly out the window.

“I love you,” Rey says, catching her breath for a moment.

“I love you, too,” Jess tells her. “And you’re totally going to be my wife.”

Rey is laughing again. “I am, in fact, totally going to be your wife.”

They slowly start to sway to the music again, savoring this first dance of a whole new phase of their lives together.


	2. Leia and Kes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Leia officiates at Poe and Finn's wedding, she shares a dance with an old, old friend. (Or, Leia finally gets a chance to relax and enjoy herself for once.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Well, what do you think?” Kes asks her, interrupting her thoughts. 
> 
> “About what?” Leia asks, clearing having missed something in the conversation.
> 
> “Taking a turn on the dance floor with me,” he replies, holding out his hand. “I bet we could convince Rey to get those weak-minded fools to play an old stand-by for us if we asked nicely.”
> 
> She laughs again—and realizes this is the most she’s laughed in a long, long time. She reaches out and takes Kes’s hand and they walk together onto the dance floor.

“I think your young Jedi might be manipulating the band,” Kes Dameron says as he takes another sip of wine. “If I weren’t so tired of all that gyrating music, I’d start to question the ethics of it.”

Leia lets out a surprised laugh. She’s been friends with Kes for years—since the original Rebellion against the Empire. Back when Han and Shara were still alive and it seemed like they all could conquer the world—and did (for a while, anyway). Even back when their boys were young—before his became the best pilot in the galaxy and hers tried to tear it apart. Now here they are, having so recently buried Ben, at Poe’s wedding.

She finishes off the last of her wine, shaking herself out of this depressing strain of thought, and glancing at Kes. “Do you think Rey’s on a slippery slope to the Dark Side because of the music then?” she asks, and this time he laughs. 

“I think she’s a safe bet on staying on the right side,” he says. “And it’s clear she’s only doing it so she can cozy up to that pilot of hers.”

Leia puts her glass down and watches Rey and Jess. The two women are clearly involved in some terribly engrossing conversation—one that ends with them kissing more passionately than Leia considers strictly appropriate at someone else’s wedding. Then again, she knows that neither of them has ever been all that interested in what’s appropriate or mannerly. They’re brash and young and in love, after all.

“Well, what do you think?” Kes asks her, interrupting her thoughts. 

“About what?” Leia asks, clearing having missed something in the conversation.

“Taking a turn on the dance floor with me,” he replies, holding out his hand. “I bet we could convince Rey to get those weak-minded fools to play an old stand-by for us if we asked nicely.”

She laughs again—and realizes this is the most she’s laughed in a long, long time. She reaches out and takes Kes’s hand and they walk together onto the dance floor.

Kes is old-fashioned, like her. He puts one hand on her waist and takes the other in his, leading her around the grass that’s acting as a dance floor for the evening. When they reach Rey and Jess, he taps Rey on the shoulder. “Another slower song after this one might be quite pleasant, young lady,” he says.

Rey flashes a smile at him. “I was just thinking the exact same thing,” she says, before she and Jess twirl away.

Leia and Kes step back into their own, less exuberant dance. “Is this hard for you?” he asks. “Being here so soon after…well, everything, I suppose?”

“Yes,” she replies. “But I wouldn’t be anywhere else. When the boys asked me to officiate at their wedding, there was only one answer.”

Kes turns his head to look for Poe and smiles when he finds him telling what’s apparently a wild story to their old neighbor, Deq. 

“You should be proud of him,” Leia says.

“I am,” he replies. “More than I can tell you.”

“So am I,” Leia says quietly. “I know you’ll understand when I say he’s become like a son to me. He and Finn both.”

“I understand,” he says. They dance in quiet for a minute, and then the song changes, and the band starts playing one that was popular during the Rebellion. “Ah, now this is more like it.”

A look of pure satisfaction passes over his face, and while Leia doesn’t think he’s doing it self-consciously, he pulls her just a little bit closer to him as they dance.

“So what are you going to do now that you've saved the galaxy?” he asks her.

“Saved it again, you mean?” she asks, a smile on her face and in her voice.

“This is what I mean, actually,” he says, returning the smile.

Leia shrugs. “I’ve had some offers for government positions,” she tells Kes. “Military ones, too. A couple of youngsters have even offered to help me launch a campaign for the new senate.”

“But?” Kes asks.

She smiles at him again. “I think my gladiating days might finally be over,” she says. “I’m tired, Kes. I’m thinking of retiring.”

Kes is silent for a moment, and then says, “Where do you think you’ll live?”

A sad laugh escapes from her. “I have no idea,” she admits. “Luke is going to start a new training academy, and it’s not as if I have a home planet to head back to.”

He takes that in as he maneuvers them out of the way of a pair of enthusiastically dancing Resistance pilots. 

“Have the boys told you they’re going to settle down here?” he asks. “They’re going to start building a house as soon as they get back from their honeymoon.”

“Will they stay with you until it’s built?” she asks.

Kes smiles. “I was informed that BB-8 will stay with me. And they’ll likely eat and freshen up here. But they’ll be officially living in a tent at the site of their new house,” he says. “I imagine Poe doesn’t want his old man around to witness the early stages of their marriage.”

“Having witnessed the early stages of their courtship, I can assure you they’re doing you a favor,” she laughs. “Besides, they’ve spent their entire relationship in military barracks, Kes. They need some time to themselves.”

“Just so.” Then he nods at Rey and Jess. “Those two have both approached me separately to ask about what life on this little moon of ours is like,” he says. “I imagine it won’t be long until they’re settled here as well.”

“That’s nice,” Leia says. “It’s good to be surrounded by friends and family.”

“So does that mean I’ve convinced you?” he asks.

“Convinced me of what?” she says.

“That you should move here.” 

Leia looks up at him in surprise. “You mean to Yavin 4?

“No, to Dantooine,” he says with a grin. There aren’t many moments when Leia can see a resemblance between Poe and Kes—Poe looks so much like Shara—but this grin is clearly genetic. “Of course, I mean to Yavin 4.”

She looks away, unable to find any words with which to answer him.

“It’s not like you don’t have any history with the place,” he continues. “And with the kids all moving here, you’d be surrounded by friends and family, as well. They’d be thrilled.” He stops dancing for a second and looks her in the eye. “And I’m not going to lie to you, Leia. I’d be damned glad if you settled here, too.”

Leia closes her eyes and leans in to him, and Kes holds her even closer. They still move in time to the music, but just barely. She’s keeping it together, too. But just barely.

“It’s okay, you know,” Kes tells her. “You don’t have to be the strongest person in the galaxy every minute of every day.”

She shakes her head and laughs, just a tiny bit. “Someone’s got to hold it all together,” she says.

“I don’t know,” he says in a quiet voice. “You’ve been doing it for a long time now. There’s going to be a new government. Things will be different. There’ll be others who can hold things together.”

“We thought that before, Kes,” Leia says with a heavy heart. “It didn’t stick.”

“But maybe this time it will,” he counters. “And regardless, you have to give the next generation a chance to make it work.” He nods at his son and Finn, now dancing with their foreheads pressed up against each other. “And you have to give yourself a chance to have a life, too.”

She shakes her head again. Han’s been gone for what feels like ages, she realizes—much longer than the short span of time since his death. It’s been years since they were together. For Kes, it’s been even longer—Poe was just a boy when Shara died. And, if Leia’s really honest with herself, she’s enjoyed every moment she’s spent with her old friend since she got here. Even the arguments over things like the efficiency of having Ewok soldiers at the Battle of Endor. (She was pro, he was con. “All that fur to trigger allergies,” he’d told her. “I sneezed my way through the whole damned battle.”)

“Okay,” she says at last.

“Okay what?”

“You convinced me. If I’m going to…well, I guess if I’m going to retire anyway, it might as well be here.”

Kes pulls away from her, and there it is again—that dazzling Dameron grin. She can see for the first time why Finn fell under its spell quite so easily.

“You’re not going to regret it,” Kes tells her. He takes her hand—the one he’s been holding all through their dance, and brings it to his heart. “I swear to you, I’ll do everything I can to make sure you never regret it.”

Leia smiles at him and somehow they get back in step with the music. She notices that it’s changed, and the band is playing yet another song from the time of the old Rebellion.

“We’re seriously going to have to keep our eyes on that young Jedi,” Kes says with a laugh.

“That we are, Kes,” Leia says. “That we are.”


	3. Finn and Poe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poe flashes him a grin, and it hits Finn just as hard now as it did the very first time he saw it on the Finalizer as they were escaping the First Order together. His pulse actually starts to race whenever Poe looks at him like that.
> 
> “Dance with me, buddy?” Poe asks.

“Aunt Nadal, you’ve been monopolizing my husband for far too long.” 

Finn looks up and sees Poe with his hand on his aunt’s shoulder. “I get that he’s too lovable to pass up, but it’s my turn to dance with him,” Poe continues. 

Instead of being offended, his aunt beams at him. Poe tends to have this effect on people. “If you hadn’t married the most handsome man in the room, I would have been able to resist him,” she replies. “But he’s all yours, Poe.” She leans in and pinches Finn’s cheek. “Adorable. Just adorable.”

Finn lets out a relieved breath as she walks away. “Thanks for that,” he says to Poe. “I tried to get away three times, and she somehow found a way to keep me with her every one of them.”

“What can I say?” Poe replies. “We’re a very persuasive family.”

“And so humble too,” Finn adds. “Completely unaware of your own positive attributes.”

Poe flashes him a grin, and it hits Finn just as hard now as it did the very first time he saw it on the Finalizer as they were escaping the First Order together. His pulse actually starts to race whenever Poe looks at him like that.

“Dance with me, buddy?” Poe asks.

“Thought you’d never ask.”

They start to dance, Poe’s limp not quite allowing them to keep to the beat of the music.

The song changes abruptly to one that Finn’s never heard before, but that Poe sings along quietly to. Finn would never, ever admit it to Poe—the lack of humility really can be an issue—but he thinks Poe’s singing voice is, without question, the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard. He suspects Poe knows it anyway, though, because he leans in to sing directly into Finn’s ear.

“I remember this song from when I was a kid,” Poe says. “My dad used to sing it all the time.”

Finn loves to hear stories from Poe’s childhood—loves to soak up all the tales about what it means to be a family. He turns, without thinking, and looks for Poe’s dad in the crowd. Kes welcomed him to the Dameron family with literal open arms, and Finn will be forever grateful for that. He finally spies Kes dancing in a softly lit corner with the general.

“Look,” he says to Poe. “That’s the most relaxed and happy I’ve ever seen General Organa.”

Poe turns just in time to see his dad grinning widely at the general.

“Stars, your dad’s grin is charming the pants off her,” Finn says in awe.

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised,” Poe replied. “My grin charmed the pants off you. Literally.”

“It’s just an expression, Poe.” It took Finn longer than he likes to remember to get the hang of all of the Resistance slang and expressions. Poe would always come to his rescue and explain away any language questions—especially when Poe’s fellow pilots would intentionally try to trip Finn up in the name of “fun” teasing. Turns out falling in love with the commander of the X-Wing squadron opens you up to a whole world of pranking.

“Besides,” Finn continues with a mischievous look that’s all his own, “technically, I think I got your pants off first.”

Poe slides his fingers around the back of Finn’s neck. “We’re going to have to stop talking about removing each other’s pants, or I’m not going to be able to make it through the whole reception, buddy.”

“You think everyone would notice if we disappeared from our own wedding reception?” Finn asks.

Poe shrugs. “They’d notice,” he says. “It might be worth the ridicule we’d endure anyway.”

Finn leans in and touches his forehead to Poe’s. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.”

They kiss for what might be the hundredth time that night. Cheers go up around them, though quieter ones than earlier in the evening. When General Organa first declared them married, the clapping and shouting was almost overwhelming. At least to Finn’s ears. Now the loudest thing Finn hears is Jess calling out, “Get a room!” as she and Rey dance past them. As if Jess should talk.

“So, I have it on good authority that both Rey and Jess have separately approached my dad to ask about life on Yavin 4,” Poe tells him. “I’m guessing it won’t be long till they move here, too.”

Finn’s whole face lights up. “Rey and Jess will be our neighbors?”

“Hopefully,” Poe says. “They don’t seem to have discussed it with each other yet. But Rey was asking about eco-friendly building materials when she talked to Dad.”

“Oh no, if they build a house, too, you know what’s going to happen?” Finn says.

“They’ll make theirs a million times better than ours and finish it in half the time,” Poe laughs. “I’m well aware.”

“Yeah, but then you can use your Dameron powers of persuasion to convince them to help us,” Finn says with a smile. 

“That’s what I was thinking, too, buddy.” 

They move around the dance floor in silence for a minute. The song changes again—and it’s another that Finn doesn’t know. Kes and General Organa both seem to be singing the words to it as they lean against each other, though, and it makes him happy to see. In fact, as Finn glances around their wedding reception, all he can feel is happiness. 

The old guard is all together swapping stories and reliving their glory days past and present. Rey and Jess are making out so violently now it’s almost embarrassing to witness (even though, if Finn’s being completely honest, he and Poe were doing the same thing less than an hour ago). Snap and his wife are dancing nearby, each of them holding one of their twin girls in their arms. Finn hadn’t met the girls until this week—he’d only seen pictures of them in Snap’s quarters and wedged into the cockpit of his X-Wing. As he watches their little family dance together, Finn is overjoyed to see the look of contentment on Snap’s face.

“It’s over,” Finn says quietly. “It’s really all over.”

He can see the witty retort rise and then fall unspoken on Poe’s lips. “It really is, Finn,” Poe says at last, his voice low and serious. “We did it.”

Finn holds Poe close—as close as he possibly can. His back still aches, and probably always will. And the limp Poe picked up in his last crash is always present as well, even while doing something as simple as slowly dancing as they are now. They both came out of the war a little worse for the wear, but….

“I never thought we’d both make it through alive,” he breathes in Poe’s ear. 

“Honestly? Neither did I,” Poe says. “But here we are.”

“Here we are,” repeats Finn. “There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be, Poe.”

They kiss and then dance their way around Poe’s old backyard, now filled with the people they love most—some of whom travelled across the whole galaxy to celebrate with them. And Finn and Poe hold tight to each other as they start their married life together—and embrace the peace that’s finally come to them and to everyone.


End file.
